RENTON — Richard Sherman wondered last month why his team’s defensive backs coach Kris Richard, the man behind the Legion of Boom, wasn’t being talked about as a candidate for vacant defensive coordinator jobs.
Well Sherman and plenty of his teammates should be happy now. Because in a move that has been expected since defensive coordinator Dan Quinn left last week to become the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, Richard was promoted to take over Quinn’s former spot on Monday.
Richard, 35, takes over a defense that has led the NFL in points allowed for three straight years and yards allowed for two straight, accomplishments he has very much been involved in while helping develop the league’s best secondary.
“He took a rag-tag bunch of DBs in 2011 and made ‘em perennial All-Pros and Pro-Bowlers, and you don’t hear his name being mentioned much for D-coordinator jobs and things like that, which I think it should,” Sherman said in January. “We obviously know what kind of coach he is and what he’s done, but obviously everybody else doesn’t.”
Sherman went on to rave about Richard’s “Attention to detail, and he does a great job managing our personalities. We have a few different personalities obviously in that DB room, and we have over the years. And he does a great job understanding who everyone is and not coaching everyone the same. Understanding how people react to different things differently. His attention to detail and preparation of game-planning is meticulous. You have to know every fit, you have to know run game, he goes over basically every scenario you can be put in in a game, and he prepares us for that. You’re rarely ever surprised going into a ball game.”
Each of Seattle’s previous two defensive coordinators under head coach Pete Carroll are now NFL head coaches, with Gus Bradley taking the Jacksonville job in 2013 and Quinn being named Atlanta’s head coach a day after Seattle’s Super Bowl XLIX loss to the New England Patriots on Feb. 1.
Richard, played cornerback at USC, including one year under Carroll, then went on to a five-year NFL career that began in Seattle. Richard began his coaching career as a graduate assistant under Carroll at USC, then followed Carroll to Seattle in 2010. Under Richard and defensive passing game coordinator Rocky Seto, Sherman, Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor have earned multiple Pro Bowl and All-Pro honors. And former Seahawk Brandon Browner was also a Pro Bowler in 2011.
“Kris, we go way back to his playing days at USC, as well as here,” Carroll said before the Super Bowl when reports were already circulating that he was in line to take over for Quinn. “Kris has done an extraordinary job. He’s an excellent secondary coach. Everything you can look at to evaluate that jumps out at you, the way these guys have achieved, the camaraderie that they have, the high level of play that they’ve maintained for a long time, the stats and all that kind of stuff. Kris does a fantastic job. He’s a real product of our system. He’s obviously a guy that we raised up in the system and we’re proud of the job that he does. He has gone beyond maybe what normal expectations for such a young career. … We rely on him heavily. He’s done a fantastic job for us.”
Staff additions
In addition to promoting Richard, the Seahawks also added three assistant coaches Monday.
Brennan Carroll, Pete Carroll’s son, was named assistant offensive line coach. Former University of Miami linebackers coach Micheal Barrow was named linebackers coach and former Seahawk Lofa Tatupu was named assistant linebackers coach.
Pete Carroll’s younger son Nate is already on Seattle’s coaching staff as an assistant wide receivers coach.
And now Brennan, who was the wide receivers coach and national recruiting coordinator at the University of Miami, makes it three Carrolls on Seattle’s coaching staff.
Barrow, who took last season off to tend to a family matter, spent 13 seasons in the NFL. He returned to his alma mater where he was on the Hurricanes’ coaching staff for seven years. He replaces Ken Norton Jr., who last week was named the defensive coordinator in Oakland.
Tatupu, a former Pro Bowl middle linebacker who helped the Seahawks to their first Super Bowl as a rookie in 2005, spent six seasons with the Seahawks, including Carroll’s first year in Seattle.
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
